The Dramatic Fall of ‘Gorgeous’ Guergis

Helena Guergis was the darling of the Conservative party before an avalanche of controversy led to her fall from grace.
The Dramatic Fall of ‘Gorgeous’ Guergis
Matthew Little
4/22/2010
Updated:
4/22/2010
OTTAWA—Helena Guergis was the darling of the Conservative party before the avalanche of controversy made her first an embarrassment and then a political outcast possibly facing a criminal investigation.

A former beauty queen nicknamed “Gorgeous,” her seat in the House of Commons just behind the Prime Minister placed her face on millions of television screens whenever the PM would speak during debates. (Since her banishment to the backbenches, where she will sit as an independent, the seats have been shuffled to move another attractive female MP, Rona Ambrose, into view behind the PM.)

Guergis rose from the back benches to cabinet, landing the role as defender of women when Prime Minister Stephen Harper named her the Minister of State for the Status of Women after the last election.
Her dramatic fall from favour began when she exploded in a now infamous outburst at the Charlottetown Airport where she arrived late for a flight and refused to cooperate with airport security.

One airport staff member said it was the worst meltdown he had ever seen, with Guergis cursing and beating on doors. Guergis apologized, but for weeks following the incident opposition MPs hounded the Prime Minister to call for her resignation.

Later a series of letters defending Guergis as an MP sparked further controversy when it was uncovered that they were written by some of Guergis’s staffers.

The latest controversy, which alleges she was involved in her husband’s business dealings and therefore in a conflict of interest as a Member of Parliament, has spiralled into allegations involving drugs and prostitutes.

Questions swirl about the former minister’s role in the business dealings of her husband, Rahim Jaffer, a former Conservative star himself whose own fall from political grace began in 2008 when he was the only Conservative MP in Alberta to not get elected.

That fall reached a new low on Wednesday when it became apparent that any political capital he might have had on Parliament Hill had evaporated. That was the day Jaffer faced a parliamentary committee probing allegations that he and business partner Patrick Glémaud were involved in unregistered and therefore illegal business lobbying.

Jaffer, who might have expected a lighter hand from his former Conservative colleagues, faced charges from two Conservatives that he had sullied the names of all MPs.

Jaffer said he had previously promised Prime Minister Stephen Harper not to get involved in any business that involved lobbying because of the effect it could have on his wife’s career.

“I assured him at that time because of my wife’s involvement in the government that I would never, ever undertake any business that involved any sort of lobbying activities or that would put any unfair demands on the government to put them in any conflict of interest,” he told the committee, recalling his discussion with the PM after he lost the 2008 election.

But as the details of accusations against Guergis and Jaffer have emerged, including that an alleged con man has pictures of the couple partying with expensive prostitutes where cocaine was being used, the opposition parties have pounced.

On Monday, Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff pressed the Harper on why he had not asked Guegis about the controversy when Jaffer was arrested for drunk driving and cocaine possession in September 2009.

“The Prime Minister did not call in his minister and ask her about her involvement in Mr. Jaffer’s tangled affairs, nor of her possible involvement in some of the criminal charges. He defended her in public for seven months after she made mistake after mistake after mistake,” charged Ignatieff.

While it is not clear how the PM would have known about Jaffer’s business dealings at that time, the opposition has not stopped trying to construe the current allegations against Guergis as reflecting a lapse of judgement in the PMO.

Allegations against Guergis got serious on the previous Friday when Liberal MP Mark Holland brought up a letter dating back to September from Guergis to her cousin, the most senior municipal officials in Simcoe county, urging that he and his council hire Wright Tech Systems and adopt its bio-dryer technology.

“What the letter failed to mention was that her husband, Rahim Jaffer, and his business partner were in a position to personally profit from a company whose business plan had a projected value of more than $1 billion,” said Holland.

Guergis has not addressed the allegations yet except to say she will defend herself in detail when she knows the full range of the allegations against her.